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“Speak what!” I barked.
It was as if the glamour over them was broken. Both blinked and their scents mellowed.
Beatrice performed an odd movement with her hand as if about to speak before snatching the words out of the air and returning them to her mouth. Her fingers pressed against her lips before she forced a casualness into her body and stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Nothing, my lord. There is nothing to say. Good night.”
“The tea,” Jack began.
“Go and get it yourself.” She pushed past us. The temptation to pull her back between us was there but instinct held me—held Jack—back. We watched her leave.
Then I looked at my friend and asked the obvious question. “Why does she call you Tod?”
“It started so long ago that I hardly remember. She gave me the pet name because she’d always wanted a pet fox. I never asked why. And… You’ve met her, once she has a notion in her head she won’t let it go. So Tod I became.” His grin might be wry but his eyes sparkled. “I’ve been Tod to her for as long as I can remember… I’m surprised she knows my real name.”
“Tod?”
“Fox, Pax. Tod means fox. And don’t think it’s escaped me you call her Vixen nor that you want to collect us as a matched pair.”
“And Jack? Your family?”
“My family call me John,” he said. “Jack happened in the army. I wanted to reinvent myself after losing my mate. Trix is the only one to give me a name. I never thought to hear her say it again.”
“And Trix?” I had so many questions for him about their relationship.
“Because she is a tricksy wee scamp.” He laughed. It began light and full of the joy only long ago memories can bring before turning bitter. “I can’t think when I’m around her. Never could. She is… She is danger. She nearly killed you. She’d happily kill me.”
I was dumb, unable to comprehend his reasoning. I knew that he loved her. Something deeper than my craving and need to possess. They understood one another in a way I didn’t comprehend. From scraps he had said, she should hate him—though why was unclear. But she had said nothing that hinted she hated. Instead she swanned around him, on edge and prepared to fight, but she never avoided him. On more than one occasion, she’d left first, but now I thought she sought to prevent herself from staying. Damn the omega for providing more facets to her character.
“I just want her to stand and fight. Tactical retreats are well and good, but she’s no chance of winning with them.” Jack frowned at the empty hall.
“Viola says she is in love with us.” I offered, the duchess’ words rushing back to me in the aftermath of the little contretemps.
“Viola is a romantic,” Jack sighed. “Beatrice is more like to make her way to the moon than admit softer feelings for either of us to her sister.”
“You don’t believe it then.”
Jack shook his head. “I refuse to believe Trix would share her feelings with anyone.”
Beatrice
The greatest peculiaritybetween the unions of omegas and alphas and every other imagined pairings was the requirement by our society that the Goddess be asked for her blessing. Though my sister and Orley had been legally married for several months, if they wanted society to accept their marriage they must be blessed in a consecrated place of worship. To add to the hassle, it must take place on one of the official holy festivals. Just another formality Jack and I had not taken part in. I dreaded standing across from him during the ceremony, because I knew how impossible it would be not to imagine it was our mating being blessed. There would be the added intimacy of the estate’s small chapel rather than the larger village temple, because for as long as anyone could remember, the Orley’s unions had been blessed away from the prying eyes of the curious—for no one was barred from entering the temple whatever service might be taking place. Only family and the other houseguests were invited to the ceremony, but local gentry and some of Orley’s tenants had been invited to the wedding breakfast afterwards, as an opportunity for them to greet Viola as their duchess.
Growing up, we Hartwells had not been regulars at services, and the strange pageantry made me smile. While the priest fiddled with the goblet of life and the plate of plenty, an acolyte in her white robe told me that there had been fierce competition amongst the local omegas for who would have the honour of providing and arranging the flowers on the altar. She seemed to think it a very serious business, though she blushed, saying that such exalted persons as ourselves never thought of such simple matters. Hero, who had stuck close all morning, expressed her delight in flower arrangements. The acolyte bloomed under my young friend’s interest, and after a significant glance, I opined the privilege of adorning the small chapel was much like when society hostesses jockeyed for the best dinners or the exclusivity of their parties. The idle chat filled the space while we waited for my other sisters… and gave me a headache. Goddess, I wanted to return to London, my friends, and the social swirl I’d taken such pleasure in for the last decade.
When Hippolyta arrived in a flurry of a red riding habit, I moved to her side—grateful I would no longer hear mindless chatter over the minutia of flower arrangements. As always, my sister arrived with a million scents clinging to her and dressed as odd as may be—who wore velvet in June? I loved her fiercely. Though she didn’t need my fierceness when she was the most dangerous creature ever to live—especially to alphas. Her grim looking beta shadow, who’d not left her side from the moment they’d met, hovered at her elbow. By her own admission, he’d appeared out of thin air one day and taken to trailing her before she gave him the official position of bodyguard.
“Jude,” I allowed him to kiss the back of my hand. An odd gallantry from the otherwise reserved beta.
“Miss Hartwell, may I say that you are looking in good health?” He murmured. “The country air agrees with you.”
A duet of growls reached a crescendo behind me. Jude’s eyes twinkled, and he leant in close to whisper into my ear. “Are you planning on leading them on a merry chase? Shall I see what the odds of your victory will be?”
”They won’t leave well enough alone… No matter how often I threaten to shoot them,” I murmured, fully aware how intimate we appeared. I stood back, putting a respectable distance between us, and spoke loud enough for the alpha who had rejected me and the alpha I’d shot to hear. “The Goddess must have decided to give them to His Grace as a balance for the good fortune of securing my sister as his wife. No man deserves such an abundance of happiness. A pair of alphas such as they is an appropriate price for his luck.”
“You do not mean that,” Polly snorted. “You are merely piqued that you must confront the alphas you have attempted to murder. You’ve never liked failing, sister mine. But fear not, I’m sure you will have the opportunity to kill them properly in the near future.”
In a softer voice she warned me, “Watch your back. They’ll have you.”
“They hate to be crossed,” I replied. “I’m not some prize…”
